Thoughts about the weekend racing on both coasts

Thoughts on an excellent weekend of racing at Saratoga and Del Mar...

On Saturday at Saratoga, there were eleven races won by eleven different trainers and eleven different jockeys. How neat is that?

It's pretty rare for something like that to happen and while it would almost be an impossibility at a small track where one or two trainers rule the roost, it's a testament to the quality and depth of racing at the Spa. Many big name trainers captured a win on Saturday: Mott, Pletcher, Matz, Tagg, Violette, Tony Dutrow, J. Larry Jones and Sheppard, to name a few. The win by Sheppard in the sixth race meant that he has had at least one winner at each Saratoga meet since 1969! 

I mention this as I remember the days some eight to ten years ago (and even after that) when Todd Pletcher would win multiple races a day (as many as three or four) and clean up every year in the trainer's standings. Nothing against Pletcher, who is having an excellent year again, but how nice for the industry and for fans wagering on these races to have such balance.

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Speaking of Todd Pletcher, the trainer unveiled another of his promising two-year olds on Saturday when Competitive Edge destroyed his competition, winning by 10 and 1/4 lengths, covering the 6 furlongs in 1:09 and 4/5 (the time certainly could have been faster, by why push the horse in his first race when he's got that big a lead in the stretch?). What made this performance even more impressive was the fact that trainer Chad Brown unveiled one of his two-year olds named Aldrin (by Malibu Moon out of the Unbridled mare Tap Your Heels) in this race. One had to note this horse, if only for the fact that his purchase price at the Keeneland sale this April was one million dollars! Early talk mentioned Aldrin being a monster; that same description was also being used for Competitive Edge. Aldrin never found his footing, finishing a dull seventh in an eight-horse field.

Any performance such as the one Competitive Edge turned in, especially from a Pletcher two-year old, gets one to think about the Breeders' Cup, followed by the Derby trail in the spring, but given that this colt is by Super Saver, Pletcher's lone Kentucky Derby winner (in 2010), the buzz will naturally be rather strong!

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There was another exceptional performance by a 2-year old over the weekend, this one a California-bred filly named Desert Steel (by Desert Code, out of a Cozzene mare), who won by an easy 5 and 1/4 lengths in a track record time of 56 and 3/5 seconds for 5 furlongs! Breaking from the rail, the filly went wire to wire and never had an anxious moment (the horse is trained by Simon Callaghan). I'm sure this will be a key race; keep an eye on the 3rd place finisher Soul Flyer, a beaten chalk who had to break from post position nine. This horse ran a fine race, but when the rail horse runs that fast and that easily, there's not much you can do.

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Saratoga and Del Mar are the jewels of American thoroughbred racing, so it makes sense that their analysts are among the very best. At Del Mar, John Lies takes the fan through every horse, pointing out previous form as well as breeding - he's especially thorough when it comes to naming the full or half brothers or sisters of each horse. You can tell he's done his homework and I enjoy his matter-of fact descriptions of the field; for Lies, each horse is worth a look - a fact that escapes too many handicappers.

So he's got an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the horse for each field, but it was something he said during his analysis of Sunday's final race, a 6 furlong event for three-year olds and upward maidens with a claiming price of $50,000 to $40,000. Talking about the favorite Q'Viva, trained by Mark Glatt, Lies noted that this would be his first race on polytrack; in his previous five races, he had run on either dirt or on the turf. He then mentioned how sometimes you shouldn't worry about that; instead you should look at his form and see how he shapes up against the other horses in the race - is he a deserving favorite? In the opinion of Lies, this was the best horse in the race.

We all love to examine the past performances from all sorts of angles - is the horse cutting back in distance? Is he coming off a layoff? What are his speed figures and how do they compare to the competition? Etc., etc and this leads to the old "paralysis by analysis" situation where you can't select one horse, as you're stuck between two or three (or maybe more). So how nice that Lies did what more handicappers should do - he simplified things.

By the way, Q'Viva, the best horse in the race in the opinion of John Lies was made the post time favorite and won by 4 and 1/4 lengths, paying $6.40 for the win with a $2 exacta of $61 and a $1 trifecta of $142.30. Sometimes, the obvious play is the right one!

Ten Memorable Moments from Thoroughbred Racing in America in 2013

The start of the 7th race at Hollywood Park on December 21, the next-to-last day of racing ever at this historic track. (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Here are my ten most memorable moments in thoroughbred racing in 2013. Most happened on the track, but not all.

1) Wise Dan wins the Breeders' Cup Mile - OK, this was hardly an upset as I'm sure that most bettors who played the Pick Six on Breeders' Cup Saturday probably singled Wise Dan on their tickets. After all, he had won this same turf race at the same track (Santa Anita) the previous year. So why is this number one for me in 2013? Well, it's the way he won the race, stumbling out of the gate and them getting fanned four or five-wide in the stretch before finally rallying to defeat a stubborn ZA Approval and eight others. Great athletes perform at their finest in the biggest moments, and Wise Dan did so brilliantly at the past two runnings of this race. He is a cinch as Horse of the Year.

2) Mucho Macho Man wins the Breeders' Cup Classic - You could certainly make an argument for this being the number one moment of 2013; it was undeniably the most heartwarming. How nice to see Mucho Macho Man win this race after doing everything but win the 2012 revival; he was defeated by a half-length by Fort Larned in that race. But he made up that distance in this year's classic - plus a nose, by narrowly holding off Will Take Charge, who made a furious run in the final eighth of a mile. In so doing, Mucho Macho Man made Kathy Ritvo the first woman trainer to win the Breeders' Cup Classic. It was also the first winning ride by Gary Stevens in this race; Stevens also won the Distaff the previous day in the Breeders' Cup.

3) Oxbow wins the Preakness - This was not just about the horse, winning this second leg of the Triple Crown in front-running style. No, this was also about two great veterans - trainer D. Wayne Lukas and jockey Gary Stevens recapturing some previous glory in this race. Oxbow would be retired before year's end, but on this day, he was in superb form thanks to a great job of training by Lukas, who won his sixth Preakness; Stevens who rode a flawless race, captured his third Preakness. This was a treat for anyone who's followed thoroughbred racing for even just a few years.

4) Palace Malice wins the Belmont - This is a tribute to three individuals: the horse itself, jockey Mike Smith and owner Cot Campbell. Palace Malice had shown a lot of promise previously, but had never been able to put everything together until this race. He had just missed capturing the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in April when he ran a bit green in deep stretch; in the Kentucky Derby, Smith took him to the lead, running suicidal fractions. Trainer Todd Pletcher equipped the colt with blinkers in that race, but never again. Palace Malice and Smith were ready for the Belmont, as he laid just off the pace and then swept by Oxbow at the top of the stretch in most convincing fashion. As for Campbell, the founder of Dogwood Stables and the man that revolutionized partnerships for owing thoroughbreds, this was his first classic victory since Summer Squall captured the Preakness in 1990. The fact that Campbell is slowing down his daily work tag at Dogwood after all these years no doubt made this victory that much sweeter.

5) Will Take Charge wins the Travers - When this colt closed stoutly to finish second to Palace Malice in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 27, you had a feeling that he would be a major factor in the Travers a month later at the Spa. Boy, was he ever! He again put on a furious rally in this race, just beating out front-running Moreno by a nose to capture the mid-Summer Derby. Luis Saez stamped his name as a top rider with this win (trainer D. Wayne Lukas noted the effort put forth by Saez). Lukas did a marvelous job with this horse, barely getting edged out from the win in the Breeders' Cup Classic and then just four weeks later to narrowly defeat Game on Dude in the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. The three-year old colt of 2013, no question.

6) Hollywood Park closes - Here was one of the saddest stories in American thoroughbred racing not just in 2013, but over the past several decades. One of the country's most history-rich tracks (it opened in 1938) with a list of winners ranging from Seabiscuit to Native Diver to Swaps, Affirmed, Cigar and of course, Zenyatta, this was the home of so many great races over the past seventy-five years. I might have ranked this higher on this list, but Southern California racing will survive just fine thanks to Santa Anita and Del Mar picking up most of the racing dates of Hollywood. So this may not be a disaster, but it is a heartbreaking moment for thoroughbred racing in America and it's something that never should have happened.

7) Mike Smith wins three Breeders' Cup races - At age 48, Smith gets better and better with time. Already the leading rider as far as Breeders' Cup victories coming into this year's event, he captured three more wins in the 2013 races with London Bridge in the Marathon and Outstrip in the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday and then Mizdirection in the Turf Sprint on Saturday. That brings his total of wins in Breeders' Cup races to 20; if anyone breaks that record, it won't be for a long time. Just a big-time money rider and in reality, one of the most consistent jockeys of the past twenty-five years; on top of that, he's also a great guy!

8) Orb wins the Kentucky Derby - Everyone remembers the winner of the Kentucky Derby, even if that horse doesn't go on to become the three year-old colt of the year or even if he doesn't win another race, as was the case with Orb in 2013. In fact, I might not have even mentioned this is it wasn't for his trainer, Shug McGaughey, one of America's most respected and beloved trainers of the past quarter century. This win was a long overdue one for Shug- congratulations!

9) Javier Castellano sets North American money earnings mark in a single season - Congratulations to Castellano, one of the game's finest riders, for breaking the record set by Ramon Dominquez just last year. Castellano quickly noted that a main reason for him setting the record was the fact that he rides in New York, where the purses are tremendous; classy move by this terrific reinsman.

10) Repeat Winners at the Breeders' Cup - Winning a Breeders' Cup race is a tremendous achievement for a horse or trainer, so what does that say about repeating? 2013 saw repeat wins from Wise Dan in the Mile (mentioned above at #1) as well as Groupie Doll in the Filly and Mare Sprint and in an incredible effort, Mizdirection in the Turf Sprint, a win made even more remarkable by the fact that the horse was coming off a layoff of nearly five months. Also quite notable was the three-peat performance of trainer Aidan O'Brien, who captured the Juvenile Turf for the third consecutive year, this time with Giovanni Boldini.